Yearly Archives: 2010

A soft and creamy lemon cookie recipe with a strong lemon-flavored icing, perfect for a summer day!

Source: The handy-dandy Food Network site. This one was contributed by Giada De Laurentiis.

Yield: about 3-4 dozen

I’m going to start with an admission. It’s a little embarrassing, but I’m just going to get it out of the way. I don’t own a zester. There, I said it. It’s true. I have no tools whatsoever for zesting lemons, oranges, limes, or the like. People who bake a lot always have one, but people who make cookies for fun might not have one, so it’s clear which group I belong to.

A friend once told me that if I didn’t have a zester, I could use a vegetable peeler to take some of the zest off the fruit, then use a sharp knife to dice the zest very finely. I will tell you right now that it is NOT the same thing. But more on that later.

I’m always looking for something fun and interesting that I have never made before, so I was thrilled when I stumbled upon this recipe. My husband is not a huge fan of sweets, and frequently tells me that my desserts are too sweet. I’ve never had any idea what he is talking about, personally! But this cookie looked like a good match for him, not chocolaty, not peanut-buttery, not nutty; what could be bad?

First, no frosting. Not that I am opposed to frosting in any way, mind you. It’s just that I was getting a little tired of frosted cookies. I needed a break. I wanted something that didn’t require that extra step.

Second, for similar reasons, something that didn’t involve chocolate or peanut butter. I wanted something kind of classy, something you don’t normally make for your grade-school kids, something really nice.

Over mixing is a common problem when making cookies, especially if you have a stand mixer. As a child, I always used a large bowl and a hand mixer, so over doing it was never a problem! Now, however, I have a great Kitchen Aid appliance, which makes my life much easier, but also makes it easier to over mix my cookie dough.

I’ve been anxious to try this recipe since my friend Angela sent it to me over Facebook a few weeks ago. Once again, I can tell you that I have never found a cookie recipe with buttermilk in it that I didn’t love, and this is no exception.

The recipe is pretty simple, but if you don’t keep root beer concentrate in your pantry, you will have to plan ahead.

My daughter did this experiment for her science fair project, and I decided to steal her work and publish it on my blog. We recently had a chat about how the world is not fair, so I’m sure she will be fine with it!

First, she made a batch of chocolate chip cookies using shortening. The recipe came, I think, from the chocolate chip bag. I’ll reproduce it here, just in the interest of clarity.

A super-easy and quick recipe for homemade Oreos, with customizable frosting to suit your taste.

Source: as with so many of my best recipes, this one came from my Grandmother.

Yield: about 4 dozen unfrosted, or 2 dozen small sandwiched cookies.

What a dilemma I found myself in this week. After my last post,Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies, I was left with a fair amount of peanut butter frosting in my fridge. What to do? What to do? I just couldn’t bring myself to let all that sweet, peanuty loveliness go to waste. The solution? Oreos, of course!!

Yield: 5-6 dozen regular cookies, or 2.5 – 3 sandwiches. Unless you like the raw dough, then make that 2 dozen sandwiches.

Oh joy, oh rapture!! The admittedly un-sophisticated crowd I asked for opinions of this cookie gave it an average score of 12 out of 10. (Most of them were younger than 12 years old.) I have to agree, though; they are seriously amazing.

My friend sent me this link, which is where I found the recipe. You can also find a link to Our Best Bites on my right sidebar. I’ll give you the recipe here, too, just for kicks.

It has been years since I have experienced such an epic failure in cookie making. It was quite disheartening, to tell you the truth. But I have decided to learn from my mistakes, and share my *ahem* wisdom with you.

Honestly, these Maple Cookies sounded great when I first saw the recipe on Food Network. I love those maple donuts, so maple cookies sounded like a natural choice. Plus, it is a little unusual, something you don’t have everyday. I kind of like standing out, so it totally appealed to me.

A recipe for a soft, chocolaty cookie with chocolate chips and white chocolate chips, and a secret ingredient… cloves!

Source: Food Network .com, creator unknown, link below.

Yield: about 3 dozen

I found this recipe just recently on theFood Network website. I was pretty excited because they look pretty darn chocolaty, and frankly, that always makes me happy.

I read the ingredients before I went to the store, but frankly, I was a little depressed when I started making the cookies and realized I had messed up. I am way too sick of quick grocery store trips to make another one, so I made do. But more on that later.

This is another unusual recipe I inherited when I married my husband. His family has made this cookie for decades, and I have never seen anything like it anywhere else. I mean, it’s not every day you come across a cookie with corn flakes in it, right?

A recipe for a peanut butter cookie stuffed with dark chocolate and peanut butter filling, and rolled in sugar and cinnamon.

Source: The Clumbsy Cookie blog, the Cookie Madness blog, and the Pillsbury website. The links are included below.

Yield: about 3 1/2 dozen

Oh, how I love a peanut butter cookie. I love peanut butter in just about anything, even (and maybe especially) ice cream. Yum. The other day, I found this fabulous recipe on this really fun cookie blog called The Clumbsy Cookie. All I did was look at the pictures, and I was in love. So, I was pretty excited to try them, I don’t mind telling you.

A recipe for a cakey chocolate cookie with chocolate frosting. This one is an heirloom in my family.

Source: My mom got the recipe from her aunt, who it seems learned it from her mother, who got it from who knows where?

Yield: about 3 dozen

When I started this blog, my mom told me about her favorite cookie from her childhood. Apparently, her grandmother used to make these chocolate frosted cookies, and my mom remembers loving their cakey texture and frosting. Who wouldn’t? My mom had to call her aunt for the recipe, and I for one, am glad she did. Now that I have made the cookie myself, I almost cannot forgive Mom for not making this cookie when I was a child!

I remember the day my friend told me about this recipe. She urged me to go to Alton Brown‘s website and find this particular recipe. Being the Alton Brown fan that I am, I found and tried the recipe right away. At that time, the recipe had 525 reviews and 5 out of 5 stars. Today, 661 reviews and still 5 stars. Did anyone rate it less than 5 stars? I doubt it. I personally can’t see how they could do it. It is hands-down the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever tasted. And I have tasted a lot of chocolate chip cookies.

This past Christmas saw some rather pathetic Snickerdoodles at our family gatherings. Mine turned out too gooey and underdone. My mother-in-law’s turned out too crispy. I somehow think that making Snickerdoodles is something of an art form. It doesn’t seem like a tough cookie to make, but it has only rarely produced results that have made me happy.

I recently tried this new recipe. (New to me, that is.) My Grandma sent it to me, and gave it good reviews. (She also sent a recipe for Molasses Snickerdoodles that I can’t wait to try!) I think this one is better than the recipe I made last Christmas, but I still wasn’t super happy with the results. I don’t think it’s the recipe, though. I think it’s the baker.

A recipe for a very quick and easy no bake cookie, in chocolate or peanut butter.

Source: I have no idea. I’ve been making these since I was a kid, and so has everyone else I know.

Yield: about 4-5 dozen cookies

I asked my kids what kind of dessert they wanted, and two of them voted for no-bake cookies. I was surprised. They always seem so, I don’t know, mundane or something. It’s like they’re not a real cookie. But, sometimes quick and easy is a nice change, so I went for it.

The truly nice thing about this cookie is that you can make it very quickly on the stove, and it never goes in the oven at all. Hence the name, no-bake. Frankly, I feel a little silly making this post at all, since I’m sure all of you made this cookie at some point in time, and it was probably back when you were 10 years old.

I should call this post “A Failed Experiment in Kitchen Sink Cookies.” They did not turn out at all like I wanted. I was supremely disappointed.

Our neighbor, Karl, makes these cookies, and I first fell in love with them when his wife gave me one. They are possibly the best cookies I have ever had. They have a little bit of everything in them. Karl didn’t have a name for them, or a recipe, for that matter, so, consequently, I have dubbed them the Kitchen Sink Cookie.

A recipe for an unusual frozen dessert made from graham crackers and pineapple and topped with whipped cream.

Source: My husband’s grandmother used to make this every Christmas. It seems no one in the family has any idea where she got the recipe. It is the most unique dessert I have ever come across! It is not too sweet, which is sometimes a nice change from the ordinary.

Yield: 2 logs

This is my favorite inherited recipe from my husband’s family. I like to think it describes them perfectly. They are the Norwegian-Wyoming-Lutheran-Farmer types, for whom life requires a lot of hard work, and is never too sweet. On the bright side, this recipe requires no baking, so you can eat it as soon as it chills a bit.

If you have ever eaten this before, or even heard of it, I beg you to drop me a line. I would love to know what you know about it, even if it is next to nothing.